Vanessa Lacoss Hurd

Vanessa Lacoss Hurd has more than 25 years’ experience in the educational nonprofit leadership, change management and consulting. Currently, she is building a consulting practice to provide coaching services to nonprofit executives along with philanthropic investment advisory and due diligence services to high-net worth individuals.

Previously, Vanessa served as the Deputy Director of the City of San Antonio’s Tricentennial celebration, where she led efforts to successfully turnaround and execute on all programmatic activities associated with the City’s milestone birthday. Prior to that, Vanessa served as the Founding CEO of the DoSeum, where she led the organization’s successful visioning and relocation efforts, culminating in a new, 70,000 square foot facility and $62mm capital campaign, including the organization’s first-ever endowment. Earlier in her career, she served as a Partner for The New Teacher Project, where she led the regional development and expansion of new teacher cohorts with school districts in San Antonio, Dallas, Austin and El Paso. She also served as the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Jumpstart for Young Children and as the Executive Director of Teach For America in Houston, where she expanded the region by more than 300% in a four-year period. Vanessa started her career in education as a teacher of middle school history and social studies in Houston and multi-level English in Japan.

Vanessa holds a Master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a BA in History and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Vanessa is active civically, where she currently serves on the Boards of the UP Partnership, Rebecca’s Wish and the Clarity Child Guidance Center. She has previously served on the Boards of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, Great Hearts Schools, the Good Samaritan Center and the San Antonio Visitors and Convention Bureau. She was one of 13 members of former Mayor Julian Castro’s Brainpower Initiative, which led to the development of the City’s Pre-K 4 SA program.